The Tayseri Ward Butcher
by Life-and-ice
Summary: Remember when Garrus tells Shepard about an elcor serial killer roaming the Citadel during his first year at C-SEC?
1. Prologue

Hi everyone, remember when Garrus mentions an elcor serial killer roaming the Citadel during his first year on c-sec? I decided to write a fanfic about it and please review and tell me what you think and if you think I should continue:D. (I kinda guessed how long Garrus had been working with c-sec but seven years seems reasonable right?)

The hunt for the Tayseri Ward Butcher.

Year: 2176 CE (7 years before ME1)

Location: The Citadel , Tayseri Ward, Outside Dilinaga concert hall. Time- 11:38 pm

-"With excitement and anxiety "The Tayseri ward butcher" claims a seventh victim, read all about it in the Tayseri Daily" shouted the elcor shopkeeper named Tealon in a typical monotonous elcor voice.

His news stand was one of the most successful on the Dilinaga blocks since it was located outside the concert hall. Every time a concert was over, thousands of people poured out of the hall and many of them bought a news hologram to read on the way home.

The human RnB singer Lady Drill had hosted her twentieth sold out concert. Lady Drill had been ranked as "Earths worst singer 4 years in a row, but somehow her music was found exquisite by the Volus. And her career had started to flourish when she moved to the Citadel.

The nearly all Volus crowd streamed out of the concert hall and some started to read the big headline-hologram projected from the newsstand. Many then rushed eagerly to the newsstand to read all the grizzly details.

-Baah, seven victims and c-sec still stands around like a quarian in a varrenfarm. A tall asari said loudly and gained several agreeing cheers from the volus around her.

-Agreeing voice, you're right, executor Pallin should have been retired long ago. Said Teolon while he handed the newsholo to the asari.

A lone volus named Tal-Suran bought a hologram and began to walk towards the shuttle station.

Tal-Surans life was at the time not very fun. His wife had filed a divorce against him since she stated that he hadn't said more than seven words in a row to her the last two years. This was probably right since his omni-tool shop had begun to take more and more of his time. Because of his wife and her lawyers constant nagging, he had gone to the concert to calm his nerves with the music from that lovely human artist. As he walked towards the shuttle station which had a shuttle-line towards Palaven Park where his sister lived, who he temporarily lived with until the divorce would be over , he read the news-hologram thoroughly.

_The Tayseri ward butcher strikes again!_

_The body of the 31- year old dockworker Jamilla Sheffield was found in a back alley close to Mannovai square in west Tayseri ward, at eight o clock this evening, one day after she was reported missing by her husband. Her body was found mutilated and many of her internal organs had been removed, the MO of the Tayseri ward butcher. This makes her the first human victim of the Tayseri ward butcher. This horrible serial killer has now killed three turians, one asari, one human and two Salarians over the time span of only one month and three weeks. The killers targets seem completely random, as all the victims differ in race and sex, everything from the retired turian c-sec officer Jilerahz Tarriax, to the young asari receptionist Messena Altia have been murdered. The only connection between the victims of the killer is that all victims lived in Tayseri ward and was reported missing after nine o clock. The head of C-sec, Executor Pallin has released a statement that they are doing everything in their power to catch the culprit and that 600 c-sec officers have been assigned to the case and works24/7 with it .Executor Pallin also urges all civilians to stay calm and he recommend traveling in groups after nine o clock. _

As Tal-Suran red the last line he began to feel a little bit uneasy and he reminded himself to give his sister a stun gun upgrade to her omnitool. The Citadel was not a safe place at times like this.

He looked up and noticed how the whole street was completely deserted. The blocks around this side of the Dilinaga concert hall consisted mostly of offices instead of shops and residences, which did not give the neighborhood much late night activity. He began to walk faster and he could see light and people by the shuttle station three blocks away.

He activated his omni-tool to call his sister that he was on his way home. As he started to dial, he passed by an alley. Just as he was about to press "call" he was violently pulled into the darkness.

_-Jackpot!, a Volus liver is worth a fortune on Omega, thought Kalton as he started to saw through the unconscious volus environmental suit…._


	2. The eighth victim

Hello again :D ! This chapter is a bit more ,, I dunno "disturbing?" than the first. Warning for sensitive readers or something. But I tried to put some humor in it to.. Weel aaanyway I didn't make any big character descriptions but I kinda see Detective Tayala as a mix of detective Anaya and Samara. And I myself see Maya Johnson as a bit Alice Cullen-looking (not a big fan of twilight but her looks fit my character I think ,, but with 22th century clothes of course,, or well C-SEC uniforms ) But of course you are free to make your own version off the characters looks. Unless I already ruined it for you XD. (btw I guessed that the C-SEC headquarters is on the Kitoi ward)

And thanks nooneimportant2 for the review, of course you're right about the whole timeline thing. The main reason I put it at 2176 was that I wanted the rest of the species to be more used to humans and therefore I wanted it not to be to far from ME1s time. Thanks again

Year 2176. The Citadel. Kitoi Ward. C-SEC headquarters. Time 00:45 am

The great atrium at the C-SEC headquarters was packed. Hundreds of people had gathered there either to complain on C-SEC for being unable to catch the Tayseri Ward butcher. Or to swamp c-sec officers ,telling them that they suspect that one of their friends or family members to be the killer. All false allegations of course, mostly due to mistakes and antagonism or pure stupidity. Yet still Executor Pallin had of course ordered all the newest recruits to interrogate all the deluded civilians because the rules required it.

Garrus Vakarian interviewed an old and probably senile hanar woman, who suspected her husband to be the killer, these serious accusations was based on the fact that her husband had started to read more detective-novels than usual the last couple of months.

_Why oh why does Pallin insist that we have to interrogate all these no lifers who actually takes their time to come to a c-sec office at 00:45 am, only to share their crazy suspicions?_ He thought, but he already knew the answer.

_Do it by the book, or don't do it at all. Sigh,,, Pallin was just like his father._

After spending nearly ten minutes trying to reason with the old hanar, his omnitool suddenly flared green and he excused himself. If a c-sec investigators omnitool flares green, means that the officer must hurry to his or her assigned patrol shuttle. Several other c-sec recruits looked at him jealously when he walked up the stairs to the elevator.

He felt relived and nearly euphoric as the elevator stopped at the ninth floor which had the corridor towards the shuttle bay. _Anything is better than interviewing idiots in the atrium, he thought happily._

As he arrived he saw his superior Detective Talaya a 310 year old asari who headed his division, and Maya Johnson a tiny female human who usually worked in the labs, wait by the shuttle.

Evenings Vakarian, you'll be working with me and Johnson on this one, jump in and I will explain.

As they took off from the platform, Talaya lit a cigarette, some kind of human gas intoxication tool.

-Aaah this is one of the many things that makes me glad the turians didn't bomb you humans back to the Stone Age, I simply can't get enough of those "cigarettes" . It is like they made them out of chemicals that make you crave them more and more". Talaya said after she breathed out a cloud of smoke.

-That's actually because of the,,, ehm eh never mind. Maya answered, but from the look of her it seemed like she thought that Talayas statement about cigarettes was very funny.

Garrus looked out of the window and saw that they now hovered over Tayseri Ward. He mused over how much more exiting his job had become since he had been transferred from the presidium. On the presidium he mostly spent his days stopping people from throwing trash down the reservoirs or to stopping other Turians from throwing trash at the Krogan statue by the consort chambers.

The wards on the other hands it actually felt like you made a difference.

He was disturbed from his thoughts by Talaya who started to brief them on the situation.

-OK, about ten minutes ago two patrolling c-sec officers found a dead volus in an alley close to the Dilenaga Concert Hall. The officers are still the only ones at the crime scene and you and I Vakarian " she pointed," are going in as backup for them while Johnson make a field autopsy. There is a chance that it is the work of the Tayseri ward butcher since nearly all of that freaks victims were found in an alley or it is a more usual robbery attempt that went wrong. But crime aren't that high in that neighborhood though.

Talaya flew skillfully through an airlock and got down on street level. They flew by the grand concert hall and stopped about two blocks from it opposite to a small alleyway. The two patrolling officers, a salarian and a volus (which was odd to see as a c-sec officer) waited by the entry to the dark alley.

Both of their omni tools were lit, and they had sealed off the area with blue light markers.

-We heard an omnitool ring in the alley when we walked by, and when we first saw the body we thought he had passed out but t, t,then we s,saw all the blood. The volus officer stammered. He was clearly not comfortable with having his back against the alley and he had his small volus-designed gun drawn.

-Ok, you two guard the entry to the alley while we help Johnson examine the body. Talaya ordered while she entered the alley.

-Yes ma`am, answered the more composed salarian officer.

The body lay nearly unhidden only about seven yards into the alley by a trash compressor. The volus lay on its stomach in a pool of dark brown volus blood.

-I get the feeling this is the work of a certain Tayseri ward butcher, I've been to two of that freaks crime scenes and they always have this much blood. said Talaya bitterly.

Maya kneeled by the body, careful not to step in the blood. She scanned the body with her omnitool. The orange light shined over the body and several holograms appeared at her omnitool.

-hmm Volus obviously, male and in his forties. The DNA-scan identifies him as Tal-Suran, owns an omnitool store close to Tayseri point.

Garrus looked at and noticed a burn mark on the volus shoulder.

-Johnson there's a burn mark on his environmental suit, on the shoulder. It looks like a taze mark if you ask me.

-Just like the others, the freak stuns the victim then dissects the poor fellow and takes out one or several organs. Luckily,, hmm if you call it "luck" the victim never regain consciousness before he or she dies. But still,, dissect someone when the person is still alive is not just sick, it is an abomination. Maya said with anger in her voice.

Garrus felt disgusted, he had read about the case in the news and hearing it during briefings, but hearing it while the same seeing a victim first hand made him sick.

-We have to catch this freak, finding anything useful?

Talaya had also joined in and started to scan the body with her omnitool.

-This guy has no criminal record at all, but he seems to be in a divorce, he was scheduled to meet his wife in court tomorrow. The poor bastard is going through a quite bitter separation it seems.

-I don't think we need to focus on that ma´am; the killer's targets are always random. The poor guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Garrus said angrily.

Garrus felt a bit wrong to hear her talk about the victim like that. He watched Talayas reaction but she didn't seem surprised or angry like any turian superior would be.

-Guess you're right but that tone with any other superior would not have been a good career move,, remember that Vakarian , Talaya said seriously.

-Sorry ma´am it won't happen again. Garrus said while he felt a wave of relief.

-I hope you two are done because I need someone to take pictures before we flip him over, Maya said loudly while she scanned the victim's omnitool.

-Yes! She suddenly called. The guy has,,,, or well he had a HRHI-omnitool. The newest model too, it also has a pulse meter. To see if the owner is in need of medical treatment. This model can even warn the owner and suggest that he or she needs to go to a doctor. If I read the resent recordings I might ,,bingo! The pulse meter is designed to shut down when there is no pulse to record, when the omnitool is taken off in other words. The tool is registered as "taken off" at 00:14am and 17 seconds. Maya said while she thoroughly scanned Tal-Surans omnitool

-But he didn't take it off; it was his hart that stopped. Garrus realized

Exactly! Maya agreed, I don't think we ever had a chance to state such an exact time of death on the other victims.

Her head suddenly jerked up.

Oh look! two minutes before death he has four seconds with a much higher pulse than normal, I think that's probably when the killer attacks him. And then his pulse suddenly become so slow that it is called "sleeping pulse" by the program, which must mean that the killer managed to stun him at that time. Maya said while Garrus assembled the crime scene camera.

-Good job Johnson, I knew I wouldn't regret bringing you along. Talaya said while she helped stepped out of the way for the crime scene camera. The camera started to hover over the body and took pictures in dozens of angles.

-WHAT? Is that volus dead! Garrus, Maya and Talaya jumped simultaneously.

A turian and an asari holding hands had somehow managed to sneak up behind the three investigators and now stood and both stared at the corpse.

-What are you two doing here! This alley is roped off and civilians are not allowed her. Get back behind the blue sealing immediately. Garrus said with as much authority that he could.

-What we didn't know the area was sealed off; we are just taking a shortcut. Said the turian

Garrus was confused for a second, why did the two officers let these people in?

Maya seemed just as confused as he was but when he looked at Talaya her face changed from confusion to understanding and then to pure rage that made her biotics flare up.

She turned and screamed to the two C-SEC officers guarding the entrance to the alley.

-YOU DIDN'T SEAL OF BOTH SIDES OF THE ALLEY YOU IDIOTS!


	3. The diplomat

**Hello again, here is the new chapter where you also get a small look inside the killers head. Enjoy :D and please review if you like to. And bharned1, thanks for the advice, I've heard that the books about Hannibal Lector differs a lot from the movies, plot changes and such ,,so I'm thinking of reading the books too. **

-Haha the salarian looks like he's about too faint, Maya said with a grin.

Tayala flung insults after insults on the two now horrified c-sec patrollers. Her voice was bioticly enhanced and made it even louder and terrifying.

-Well they earned it, why didn't they seal of the other side of the alleyway? I mean didn't they realize that people could contaminate the crime scene while stood against the back to the alley. The killer could even come back and destroy evidence, I bet they were to afraid to even walk past the body. Garrus said while he checked through the dead volus pockets.

-Hmm I found a concert ticket Maya, to a Lady Drill, I recognize that name. Garrus said while read the ticket thoroughly.

-Ugh ,lady drill. She's awful I heard that she even paid like 4000 people to go to one of her concerts, just to trick her agent so he wouldn't abandon her. Lots of Volus like her though, for reasons way over my head. Her career has gotten a real upswing lately. Maya giggled.

-What an interesting lecture in human music, Garrus said ironicly, but the concert took place in the the Dilinaga concert hall. Which is not far from here and the concert ended at 11:30pm, and Tal-Suran died at 00:14am. I guess he was on his way home from the concert, and got dragged into the alley when he passed by. This neighborhood is perfect to kill someone in, the streets are nearly completely empty at night and the alleys are even more deserted.

-That scenario fits I guess, but could you give me a hand in flipping the guy over. I need to clarify that it actually is the work of the Tayseri ward butcher. If he is another victim he will have a long amateur cut wound over his stomach. And missing organs of course, hmm when you think of it the Volus wears those environmental suits for a reason. Their flesh would actually split open if it comes in contact with open air in just a few seconds.

Garrus and Maya flipped the body over and both stared in confusion at the sight. A 3 inches cutmark lay on the poor volus stomach. But the cut was unfinished, since a nearly 1,5 foot long marking had been drawn on the volus stomach. Under the volus laid some dark green slimy goo, which was partly crumbled.

-That's a volus liver alright, but severly damaged by our oxygen-filled air of course. This guy has no significant knowledge in dissecting and volus biology that's for sure. If the guy wanted to keep the liver, he or she should have brought an environmental canister to store it.

-I sense that the killer didn't realize until it was too late. He left the body without finishing. Garrus said while he took note of it in his omnitool.

-When you think of it, he has claimed eight victims and we still don't know for sure why he does it. But nothing can justify this anyway. Maya said angrily while she looked at the corpse.

-One theory is that the killer gets some kind of thrill with harvesting the organs, or that maybe he collects them and keeps them as trophies. But I have kind of come up with my own theory. Garrus said seriously.

-Really?, I have also problems with "the collector" theory. That kind of killer targets most often a specific group of victims. The victims of this killer can't be more random if you ask me.

-Exactly! I think that the killer sells the organs he takes instead. That's the reason he is killing in the first place! Garrus realized.

_The Presidium. 00:59 am._

_Kalton parked his shuttle in a secluded part of the parking garage. He was extremely frustrated and walked towards his apartment. The apartment had a beautiful view over the presidium and on the other side of the lake laid his workplace. The elcor diplomat office. His main job was to present complains and proposes from the elcor people, to vice ambassador Aldruhn. Who in her turn gave it to ambassador Jalum. Who later presented it to the council. When he walked in the corridor he passed by his volus neighbor Tin-Nara, who greeted him kindly. He mumbled back,,, the sight of his volus neighbor made him even more angry and frustrated. It was like his bad luck was taunting him of his failed harvestings. When he got through the door to his apartment, he instantly hit his Forta-statue that stood next to the door. The statue was a copy of the original of course, but still expensive. _

_Two failed harvestings in only three days! First the human who he had started to dissect, but he got disturbed when a shuttle backed into the alley. He had to hurry away and leave the alley without finishing. More frustrating was that the body wasn't even discovered by the driver, instead nearly a day later. If he had known that then, he might as well have continued. And now the stupid volus incident,,,,_

_-Why had those annoying volus evolved in a high pressurized greenhouse atmosphere anyway? Couldn't they just work like normal beings and not implode when you open their environmental suits? _

_He felt he was getting desperate and he needed the money from the organ selling more than ever. He hadn't been to the consort chambers in nearly four days now and if he didn't find a suitable harvesting candidate soon, he didn't know what he would do,,,_


	4. The Reason

**Hi everyone. I know been slow in my updating but that's because I have returned from a great vacation in Menton (south France near the Italian border), completely burned up from the sun but I'm alive at least. (my scandinavian skin don't cope very well with that kind of weather XD) aaaanyway here is the update :D**

**btw the lystheni offshoot thing is not something I have made up (I don't have the fantasy to make up such a thing xD) but I saw it on Masseffectwikia (great site if you want to write a fanfic about Mass Effect) ps don't be afraid to review.**

The citadel. Kitoi Ward. The C-SEC headquarters. Press conference hall. 8:30 am.

Garrus was tired and very annoyed, Detective Talaya and Maya and himself, had been forced to sleep in the atrium when they returned since all three of them had to be at the press conference that were going to be held in the C-SEC headquarters. The reason they had to appear at the press conference was never made clear, but Garrus suspected that Executor Pallin had ordered this so that the journalists wouldn't only concentrate on him with their rude insinuations of how badly the serial killer case was handled.

As if that wasn't enough after the autopsy at the crime scene was finished Talaya had received orders from exector Pallin himself to remain and guard the crime scene, until the extraction team arrived to pick up the body.

But the extraction team's shuttle had (of course) gotten engine problems and arrived more than an hour to late. Which delayed the entire investigation since Officer Maya Johnson couldn't send the information she gathered in her omnitool to the c-sec database until she arrived at the headquarters.

The reason that media already knew about the eighth murder were the two civilians that accidently had stumbled onto the crime scene. They had later went to the press and talked about what they had seen. And after only a half hour nearly all of the citadel news channels and papers knew that the Tayseri Ward butcher had claimed an eighth victim. This had forced the C-SEC leaders to declare that they were going host another press conference. The atrium had a growing crowd of journalists waiting by the elavators to be called in to the pressconferance room that started in 15 minutes.

-I have slept on a sofa in the atrium just because two incompetent officers was too stupid to understand that a two entry alleyway needs sealing on both entrees. Talaya murmured furiously while she stretched her arms.

- That wasn't the best night of sleep I've ever had. Maya yawned tiredly while she sat on the edge of the sofa, curled up into a small ball with her thin arms around her legs.

Garrus thought she looked very tiny, and guessed that she probably wasn't much taller than 5 ft. Which looked funny next to the more than 6 ft tall Talaya, and himself for that matter.

Garrus sighed –Maybe we should head up to the press conference room. Not looking forward to it though.

All the journalists had taken a seat and all their respective cameras hovered over them and constantly bumping into each other. As Executor Pallin walked up to the podium followed by Talaya Garrus and Maya all the journalists nearly simultaneously started their omnitools and made their cameras take four pictures a second.

-Well, I'm very glad that so many of you have joined us here at the press conference. Pallin said with a voice so filled with sarcasm that it wasn't even funny. -I have a sad announcement to make, which is that the Tayseri Ward butcher has struck again.

Garrus noted how no one looked surprised or shocked, thrilled and curious were more fitting words to describe the crowd.

_One of the few who benefits from this killings is selfdefence shops and the newspapers._ Garrus thought.

-The body of Tal-Suran, a 53 year old shop owner was found some time after midnight today in an alley by the Dilinaga blocks. Pallin continued in a very detached voice.

Before he could continue any further the crowd ambushed him with questions.

-What was the cause of death?

-Do you still don't the race of the killer?

Pallin cut the chatter short with a quick statement and gestured towards Maya.

-Officer Johnson will answer any questions about the state the body was found in since I have limited knowledge.

The journalists switched their attention to Maya and started to aggressively question her instead.

Garrus was furious, he knew that Executor Pallin had lied about his "limited knowledge" of the murder. For gods sake they had been forced to show their review the evidence they had found in over an hour last night!. This tactic didn't put Pallin in the spotlight, which was perfect because for him since the citadels citizens was dissatisfied with C-SECs handling of the case already. And Pallin sly tactic prevented him from becoming the proud police forces scapegoat.

The press conference continued in that way, with executor Pallin cleverly dodging most questions and somehow at times even managing to sound angry at his three officers and questioning their decisions. Garrus felt like his blood was starting to boil.

The Presidium. 08:57 am 

_Kalden was stressed. He had scanned the holonet in over an hour to find a suitable harvesting race. He had written out volus because of the fact that it would be too hard to harvest their organs. Because of their idiotic biology, annoyingly enough, volus organs could be sold in the terminus systems for a small fortune due to the fact that several Lystheni (the offshoot race of the salarians) used them for their medicine. (one reason the volus avoid the terminus system). After a few more minutes of researching he finally found something. At a batarian anti-human website (a not uncommon topic on batarian websites) named redblood-haters there were several proposals to host a dinnerparty with courses made from human organs. The payment for bringing the organs was very satisfying. Kalden received a response only minutes after he had mailed them. The reason they themselves couldn't go organ hunting was that every single one of them was wanted for "lesser" crimes like assault and robbery._

_The mercenary band Blood Pack had been Kaldens contact and the main buyer of his harvested organs. But those annoying turians and their even more annoying military had launched a combined assault to the mercenary band s citadel office. This had effectively deprived Kalden his only buyer. _

_But now when he had a new buyer, he started plan his next harvesting. He knew that there where human districts in the zakera ward. But if he took a his shuttle to that ward it would be registrated in the elcor diplomat office since the shuttle was owned by his office. The only reason he only harvested at the Tayseri ward was his shuttle (due to some kind of bug in the shuttles system didn't registrate a flight there, a lucky coincidence that made it impossible to track him in the citadels flight system if he flew to the Tayseri ward). Kaldens mood got much more lighter, after this harvesting he could finally go to the consort chambers again, something his (after a little incident involving a fight with the ambassador six months ago) significantly lowered diplomat salary could never pay._


End file.
